Results:
1450 patients completed the smoking question; 219 controls, 546 CRS participants without nasal polyps (CRSsNP) and 685 participants with CRS and nasal polyps (CRSwNPs+). The mean age was similar with a greater female preponderance in the control group and male in the CRSwNp group. The greatest number of active smokers was found amongst control participants (15%) with lower rate of smokers in both CRSwNPs+ (9.9%) and CRSsNPs patients (13.9%) respectively (p=0.03). We found a significant difference in the mean difference in SNOT-22 scores between active smokers and non-smokers for both CRS phenotypes (p<0.001) on Analysis of Variance. In both CRS subgroups active smokers had significantly worse SNOT-22 scores than non-smokers by a mean magnitude of 10 points. Non smokers also demonstrated a higher percentage of surgical procedures (one or more) although this was not statistically different (p=0.098).